The Bonding – Dialog Data and C.Riker
DATA: Excuse me, sir. Am I intruding?
RIKER: No, sit down.
DATA: How well did you know Lieutenant Aster?
RIKER: We spent some time together. Not very well. How well did you know her?
DATA: Why do you ask?
RIKER: Well, you just asked me.
DATA: But why do you ask the question? Since her death, I have been asked several times to define how well I knew Lieutenant Aster. And I heard you ask Wesley on the Bridge how well he knew Jeremy. Does the question of familiarity have some bearing on death?
RIKER: Do you remember how we all felt when Tasha died?
DATA: I do not sense the same feelings of absence that I associate with Lieutenant Yar, although I cannot say precisely why.
RIKER: Just human nature, Data.
DATA: Human nature, sir?
RIKER: We feel a loss more intensely when it’s a friend.
DATA: But should not the feelings run as deep regardless of who has died?RIKER: Maybe they should, Data. Maybe if we felt the loss of any life as keenly as we felt the death of those close to us, human history would be a lot less bloody